Your Body Is Way More Powerful Than You Realize

I would like to share a personal story with everyone to truly show how powerful your body can really be, as long as your mind is willing to push it.

I am a 20 year old college student, I play rugby and have been fairly active my whole life. Never broke a bone. I have always wanted to be in amazing shape, but to put it plainly I never wanted it bad enough, I just kind of wanted it. I made excuses, skipped days and weeks to go to the gym. I played rugby so i didn’t really mind, thought i was getting enough exercise, but 3 months ago I broke my leg (distal fibula to be exact. in 3 places, and a spiral fracture that went half way up the bone) in a rugby game and the doctor said I would be out for 12 months. A whole fucking year. I accepted it, not in a depressed way but as “well fuck i guess that’s life.” But as i laid on the couch for a while I decided I want to make sure this never happened again. So I stopped eating junk food, ate smart (note I didnt say healthy, i said smart. there is a difference). I even went to the gym as the doctor allowed and did upper body workouts. And even while my foot was in a cast i would do small things like move my ankle, just small movements but i did them about 10+ times a day. I work and worked at it. I would always twist it until it hurt, not a lot to cause any real pain but enough where my body says, “Hey, now would be a good time to stop.”

about a month and a half after my surgery I got a walking boot. Doc said it was crazy how fast my leg was healing. I start physical therapy, and slowly relearn how to walk again, and work on strengthening my ankle and unused leg muscles. Every day I worked my ankle usually by walking a mile to the gym, working out, then a mile back (I lived on a hill, so this walk back was nice and hard).

Another month goes by, The walking boot was off. I am walking with a crazy limp. It feels so foreign to me. But I force my leg to walk normally using my bodies sway as a guide. I figured he less sway, the more I was walking normal. It hurt a lot a lot of the time, but I kept pushing. All my years of sports had taught me the difference between uncomfortable pain and injury, so I knew i was alright. And it paid off. I got stronger fast, there was noticeable improvement every physical therapy session. My physical therapist called me “A real life Wolverine” I was improving so fast.

Two days ago, just over three months after I broke my leg and 6 months before i was suppose to even have a cast off my foot (even my doctor said best case scenario is 9 months), I was cleared for unrestricted activities. Today was the first time I took a run outside of a specialized unit. I ran one lap around my block, about 1.2 miles. Now to be clear, I haven’t done any real activity in 3 months and my ankle is still stiff. I tripped 4 times, but never fell. I never stopped. I did it in 9:52. When I finished I felt like crying I was so completely overjoyed. I did it. I am back. While I am not back to where I was before the accident, I will be. School and rugby starts in 33 days. I plan to be at the first practice, and I plan to kick some ass.

@baptiste, Good on ya, man. It takes serious discipline to spare yourself the pity and get off the couch and do everything you can to recover quickly. The inner strength you gained from this will stay with you.